Latest Propaganda from Taheri –updated–
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Here we go again. Amir Taheri is back and doing more damage in print.
Regular readers may remember my reporting on him last year, when Taheri promoted
the bogus story of the Iranian badges. You can find my posts here,
here, here,
here, here
and here,
which ended up as a source for Larry Cohler-Esses\’ reporting in The
Jewish Week. Bottom line, with a little help from a very gabby guy named Aaron
Breitbart, whom I spoke at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which resulted in a damning fax being sent to me, I blew them and Taheri out of the water.
Right after that, with Taheri disgraced for promoting the badge propaganda,
he came out with a statement
to try to salvage his reputation. Then Mr.
Bush invited him to the White House to get his advice on Iraq, and did it
for him.
Well, today Taheri offers utter crap in, where else, the New York Post.
A paper trying to help Bush all they can so escalation becomes a reality. Again, it\’s all about Iran, which Taheri has proved is his target. I understand, but misinformation (to put it mildly) is not the way to go about it. Two podcasts, here and here, show the Bush administration out; meaning the Middle East escalation currently underway is about Iran. Read Clemons (more here).
But this is just silly:
\”Maybe the Americans aren\’t running away after all,\” said the resident,
a Sunni Arab, over the phone moments after President Bush unveiled his new
plan. \”The message seems to be that the United States will remain committed
as long as Bush is in the White House.\”Some 70 percent of Baghdad\’s violence is concentrated in five neighborhoods,
where both Shiites and Sunnis have been the targets of rival death squads
for months. Other Baghdadis say the population of those areas will greet the
American troops with sweets and flowers.The fear that the United States, bedeviled by internecine feuds, might cut
and run has been at the root of the violence since Iraq\’s liberation in 2003.Jihadists have fought not because they hope to win on the battlefield, but
to strengthen the antiwar lobbies in the United States and Britain. Some in
the new political elite have become fence sitters because they regard the
United States as a fickle power that could suddenly change course. Others
have created or expanded militias, in case the United States abandons Iraq
before it can defend itself against internal foes and predatory neighbors.The new Bush plan has raised Iraqi morale to levels not known for a year.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who had been dropping hints he might resign
because of sheer fatigue, now says he is committed to restoring Baghdad\’s
sobriquet of Dar al-Salaam (The Abode of Peace) by clearing it of al Qaeda
and Saddamite terrorists, militias and death squads.HOW
IRAQIS SEE W\’S NEW PLAN
GREAT RELIEF – AND SOME CONCERNS
\”Babboozler\”
is right. But it\’s actually worse. Selling this story is dangerous, because
it flatly goes against reporting coming out of Iraq. But I guess Taheri knows
most people don\’t get the reporting, because it\’s so scant, so he\’s hoping once
again to take advantage of the gullible. Read Juan Cole, which I linked to yesterday
If part of the strategy is to assault the Mahdi Army frontally, that will
cause enormous trouble in the Shiite south. I would suggest that PM Nuri al-Maliki\’s
warning to the Mahdi Militia to disarm or face the US military is in fact
code. He is telling the Sadrists to lie low while the US mops up the Sunni
Arab guerrillas. Sadr\’s militia became relatively quiescent for a whole year
after the Marines defeated it at Najaf in August, 2004. But since it is rooted
in an enormous social movement, the militia is fairly easy to reconstitute
after it goes into hiding.
Do not believe this man or anything he reports. I\’m not calling him a liar,
but he is one of Mr. Bush\’s chief propagandists. I\’ll just leave it at that,
which will please my attorney, no doubt.
…and remember, Taheri\’s real target is Iran.
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